Anecdotal evidence: I found that it's super easy to eat way more than you should by just having some food laying around. And I don't mean just Cheetos - "healthy" food will set you back rather quickly as well. The amount of exercise doesn't matter that much - with the calorie density of common snacks, you will out-eat your exercise really fast. I don't think I'm that bad in that sense, but until I started keeping a track of what I eat and the count the calories, nothing worked. Yes it's a hassle, but I vibe-coded an app that does image analysis and tracks your calories. Shameless plug: HeartLens on app store, https://apps.apple.com/us/app/heartlens-your-health-tracker/...
Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
211–220 of 396 posts
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#212I thought this is common knowledge.
1 Snickers bar = 30 minutes of running.
You can lose 100 pounds without getting up from the couch, but you cannot lose 100 pounds by running, if you keep eating Snickers bars.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
My anecdata: - a year of busting my ass on the bike almost daily: -15kg - a year of restricting calories to ~1200/day and not doing much else: -40kg - 2 years of sitting in my apartment being afraid of COVID and drinking too much: +50kg Conclusion: booze is a really great way to put on a lot of weight quickly
my anecdata aligns with yours. A year of cardio every day and resistance 6 days a week bought me no weight loss, 2 years of limiting myself to 1800 cals/day on top of that stripped me of 25% of my body weight.
Cool, but being physically active is not just to lose weight but to gain health. Your heart works more, your lungs work more, they develop a bit more, putting more oxygen in your body and the effects compound over time. So if you can, do both: control calories intake and exercise.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. It's almost always either not tracking or not being honest with tracking. It's possible to overeat anything - whether a food is "healthy" or not, while important, isn't what matters for weight loss. Burning more calories than you consume is what is important for weight loss. Where I see folks, particularly men, fail most often is in their mid-late thirties. Sedentary lifestyle, wants to lose the "dad bod." Someo…
Any good resources you recommend on this? Speaking as an early forties Dad :)
First, figure out your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure) to figure out how much of a deficit you need to eat in to lose weight at your desired rate.
You can start off with one of those online calculators (like this one: https://tdeecalculator.net/). 1 to 2lbs/week is generally healthy and sustainable. Losing weight too fast can cause you to lose a lot of muscle as well, which is generally what you don't want (resistance training will help with this)
I like this TDEE spreadsheet, as the formulas aren't always accurate for everyone: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7gGXXQIy4R4ejRRNkZHZHFDOW8...
You log what you eat and your weight everyday, after a few weeks you should have a pretty good picture of your TDEE and know how much you need to eat for your desired weight loss. What was important for me, is that if you add in exercise, try not to eat back what you burned from the exercise - smart watches/fitbits aren't always accurate in their estimates, so just use the exercise as an opportunity to dig a little deeper of a deficit (and for the other health benefits).
As much of a pain in the ass it is, you'll want to weigh your food for a while, down to individual ingredients including cooking oil, as it's really easy to underestimate how much you consume (2 tbps of olive oil is 120 calories, for example - that adds up over the course of a week if you are using that much or more every time you cook).
The reddit r/fitness wiki has a wealth of information on diet and routines as well, I highly recommend skimming it over: https://thefitness.wiki/
If you are able I'd recommend resistance training along with diet as well. Building muscle will help boost your metabolism a bit, help with aesthetic goals, and getting stronger will only help you as you get older. No need to go crazy here, even just 2 to 3 days/week, especially for a beginner, can give you some pretty big improvements. A lot of people think they need to hit the gym 6 days/week like a body builder but it's not necessary at all.
Lastly, take progress photos and/or body measurements as well. You'll hit periods, especially if you are resistance training, where the scale isn't moving, but you could still very well be losing body fat so the photos/measurements can be helpful to keep your motivation through these periods. Expect your weight to fluctuate a lot too day to day, what's important is the average trend over time, not necessarily day to day.
Hope that helps!
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#215At some point in my life I was eating 400g of nutella every day. I was also running 26km per day. I didn't get fat.
> We also excluded those listed as “athletes” in the database and those with TEEs greater than 25 MJ/d (all of these excluded individuals were from High HDI populations)
This study specifically excluded athletes, so its conclusions would be applicable to someone running 26km per day.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
The most effective exercise for weight loss is fork put-downs.
[citation needed] That is not what any of the studies I have read find, particularly not past the short term: past calorie restriction diets is one of the factors associated with developing obesity.
Isn't that a bit of a truism?
A _past_ calorie restriction is associated with a _current_ calorie surplus.
Obviously if the calorie restriction were being continued, one wouldn't be developing obesity.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#217This is true to an extent and I'm very fond of the saying, but beyond a certain point you can indeed outrun a bad diet. I used to spend ~4 hours a day training martial arts (kickboxing, BJJ, etc) during which time I could eat almost anything I wanted without gaining weight. I'm sure if I had downed a cheesecake a day it would've been bad for me, but I was able to get away with a level of excess back then that I am un…
Anecdotal counterpoint: I have been quite sedentary for several years, since going fully remote. I had seasons where I would gain wait and lose weight, and my level of activity remained unchanged. A few years ago, I started paying more attention to my weight, and got to where I was consistently in my ideal weight range. Again, level of activity remained unchanged. About a year ago, I started indoor cycling (Zwift) qu…
People tend to adjust their activity to maintain their energy expenditure without consciously thinking about it.
So a 30 minute session in the day might be followed by more time on the sofa later on.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
Michael Phelps did outswim his diet. He famously ate a lot of junk food and pizza, and yet remained fit because of his huge daily calorie expenditure. A direct quote from an interview with him, where he states: "I just sort of try to cram whatever I can into my body. It’s pretty much whatever I feel like eating, I’m going to eat".
How many hours per day was he swimming?
A lot. But a possible amount.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#219Unsurprisingly, the title is sensationalist and not representative of the study. The study compares energy expenditure across different economic groups i.e. western people sitting in offices versus hunter-gatherers in Africa, and found that difference in energy expenditure does not account for differences in obesity, so points to consumption as the likely reason. The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so…
> The sample dataset explicitly excluded 'athletes', so would exclude people that _are_ outrunning a bad diet. You can't outrun a bad diet. This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. Perhaps it's a nice lie one can tell himself to continue eating junk and not feel guilty about it. Athletes, especially body builders require a lot of calories but their diet is surprisingly healthy. They eat plenty o…
I've been cycling several thousand miles a year for many, many years, and in my experience I can certainly "outrun" a bad diet. Go for a 40 mile bike ride 5 days a week and you'll have a difficult time eating enough food.
A couple years ago I added weight lifting to my regimen and I could never eat enough. Most days of the week I'd stop by mcdonalds to pick up a couple mcdoubles as a snack. I was easily consuming 4-5 thousand calories a day (150-175 grams of protein) and I was still losing weight while gaining muscle. At one point I was sub-10% body fat whilst eating a mix of healthy food and junk food. Every visit my personal trainer was telling me to eat more.
If you're interested in losing weight while eating whatever you want I suggest doing 10-15 hours of fairly intense cardio per week, and 2-3 very intense lifting sessions per week.
Re: Diet, not lack of exercise, drives obesity, a new study finds
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is such a myth and I have no idea where it's coming from. For people that are merely trying to lose weight, it's effectively true. When you're out of shape, you won't have the strength or endurance to exercise long and hard enough to actually burn significant calories. For athletes that are running marathons or doing powerlifting, yes, it's certainly false. Massive bodybuilders that are already deadlifting hun…
My anecdata: - a year of busting my ass on the bike almost daily: -15kg - a year of restricting calories to ~1200/day and not doing much else: -40kg - 2 years of sitting in my apartment being afraid of COVID and drinking too much: +50kg Conclusion: booze is a really great way to put on a lot of weight quickly
All impressive numbers, but it seems like the move would be to keep doing #1 while being slightly less restrictive about #2 and just as restrictive about #3, which will eventually leave you not just lighter, but with a good level of fitness if you aren't already there. It's way easier to keep excess weight off and feel great about it if you're practicing athletics of some sort regularly